Goethe Institute
Remaining Performances:
Wednesday, July 16 at 6 p.m.
Saturday, July 19 at 8:15 p.m.
Thursday, July 24 at 6:30 p.m.
Sunday July 27 at 2:30 p.m.They say: “It’s #SexEd for adults. Twanna grew up in Mississippi, lost her virginity in England and slept her way through Europe. Laugh and learn during this live sex (storytelling) show from an award-winning educator and columnist. Play trivia. Win exciting prizes!”
Jonelle’s Take: Maybe it was her warm, coy smile or the vibrators she was throwing through the air, but Twanna A. Hines charmed the pants off the packed house for I Fucked Your Country‘s opening performance. Hines brings her substantial training as a sex educator to the Goethe Institut’s main stage, but her audience leaves wanting more of her utterly delightful demeanor and tender self-awareness. The Funky Brown Chick – as she dubs herself – sits you down for an hour-long chat about race, national identity, sexual health, and doing the horizontal tango with delicious foreigners.
Hines, an alumna of Illinois’s abstinence-only curriculum, begins the show by asking her audience if any among them are European, informs them whether or not she has “fucked their country,” and asks what their sex education was like. This early portion juxtaposing American and European attitudes about sex was especially poignant given the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on Burwell v. Hobby Lobby and made great use of the unfavorable comparison to leverage how freeing sexual discovery in Europe was for Hines.
From there, the ratio of sex education interludes with fabulous prizes to honest, forthright storytelling tips a bit in favor of the former. Though no one in the audience could complain for all of the condoms, dildos, and bawdy literature being passed around, there was a yearning to get back to Hines’s exploits across the pond. Hines lived in Amsterdam and speaks Dutch fluently according to the program, but there were no sizzling stories of towering Dutch men and wooden shoes. What a tease!
Ultimately, I Fucked Your Country is a wonderfully saucy way to spend an evening or a post-brunch stupor. Hines is undeniably charismatic and is completely natural in front of a crowd. Her stories, though scarce here, leave you longing for more, but isn’t that like any good one night stand?
See it if: You’re up for one night — or one hour — of casual, naughty fun with a Funky Brown Chick.
Skip it if: You’re looking to settle down for something a little more serious.
Disclosure: The author of this post in the playwright of the Capital Fringe show TAME.